


You Called It Home

by tamatojam



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Antarctic Empire, Arguing, Dream Smp, Gen, Post-Manberg-Pogtopia War on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), SMP Earth - Freeform, Sad Ending, Sleepy Bois Inc as Family, Wilbur Phil and Dream are only mentioned, estranged family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:42:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28586667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamatojam/pseuds/tamatojam
Summary: There's always a small moment of peace before a war, it seems, where the enemies meet and talk. Or in Technoblade and Tommy's case, they just yell at each other for fifteen minutes.
Relationships: Family dynamics - Relationship, No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 270





	You Called It Home

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my friend Maia for beta reading!! This was written right after the January 5th festival :)

“It all ends today, Tommy,” Techno says. “It all ends today.”

To be perfectly honest, Tommy has no idea how they got to this point. They’re sitting on top of the tunnel hill that overlooks L’Manburg, Tommy’s base to their backs. There’s a good ten feet between where he sits and where Techno sits. The peace they’re existing in is tense, and it leaves a burning feeling deep in Tommy’s soul.

So Tommy does what he knows best. He starts lashing out. “I hate you.”

Techno hardly even offers him a glance. “Do you, now?”

“Yeah, I do, actually. I’ve hated you for months and I’m an _idiot_ for convincing myself otherwise.”

Techno cracks his knuckles absentmindedly. It reminds Tommy of a pit, stained with blood, somewhere in a ravine. He swallows away the lump in his throat. “Hate me all you want, Tommy, it won’t change what happens in a few hours.” If he wasn’t talking about the destruction of everything Tommy had ever known and loved, perhaps Tommy would find the orange sunrise beautiful. But it just looks like the sky’s been stained with blood too, just like that fucking pit.

Tommy has the gall to sneer at the older boy. “And whose fault is that?”

Techno glares right back. Tommy pretends like every cell in his body doesn’t scream in unison for him to run. “It’s definitely not _mine_. Even now I’m still half willing to help you get your discs. But this? What I’m about to do? This was always going to happen, Tommy, and two days ago you said you’d stick by my side.”

“Things change, prick!”

“Not you though, apparently!”

A sword to the gut have shocked Tommy less. “The _fuck’s_ that supposed to mean?”

Techno stands up, ignoring the pain in his heart when Tommy flinches back. He ruffles out his cape until it hangs correctly, mostly just buying time to think of what he wants to say. “I mean, to be fair, how have you changed at all since the last war?” 

Tommy’s mouth drops open in shock. “Oh, how _dare_ you-”

“Are you gonna let me say what I mean, or are you gonna change your mind about this too?” Techno’s right about that at least, as much as it annoys Tommy to admit, so he reluctantly shuts his mouth and nods as if to tell Techno to keep talking. “Well you decided that you hated me after what happened during the war with Manberg, for some reason, even though you knew of my plans from day one-!” Techno’s voice raises in volume as he speaks. He takes a shallow breath that does little to calm him down.

“You think I like being the bad guy? You think I like being seen as nothing more than a weapon to you?”

Tommy gets to his feet too, wanting to be level in this conversation. “That is not how I see you-”

“Isn’t it?” Techno snaps. “Isn’t that all I am? A weapon to stage a coup with, a weapon to get your discs back? A monster that goes _bump_ in the night?”

“No, _no!_ ” Tommy barks back. His brain feels like mush, trying to figure out what it is exactly that he does feel. “No, I saw you as a friend-!”

“Oh, really? Well that’s news to me!”

They fall back into an uneasy silence. Neither of them move or look away. They’re just staring each other down, as if daring the other to make the first move, take the first punch. Red eyes stare down blue ones, and the latter eventually look away. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to- Techno, did you listen to what I said yesterday? I was valuing the fucking discs over my best friend-”

“Best friend that exiled you-”   
  


“Tubbo was being manipulated-”

“By the same person I protected you from-”

That’s just about the last straw for Tommy. “Yeah, you protected me from Dream, only to immediately fucking switch sides to join him!”

“You know, the thing about Dream is that at least he’s made it clear that I’m just means to an end for him! But you play this weak character all the god damn time that somehow convinces me to help you. And then just when I think you _might_ actually be on my side you pull the rug out from underneath me.” Techno points directly at Tommy’s face. It’s an accusation that hurts more than either of them wishes it would. 

Tommy’s voice breaks when he speaks. “That’s not true-”

“You’ve done it twice,” Techno shoots back, and it slows the conversation to another lull. 

Tommy opens and closes his mouth a few times like a fish. Techno’s glare makes it incredibly difficult to think, to keep courage, to say anything at all. But there’s a fire in Tommy’s chest and he’s not letting it die out. He looks to his left and sees L’Manburg, sees the nation he built from the ground up. 

It doesn’t look the same anymore. A voice that sounds suspiciously like Techno in the back of his mind screams “ _Exactly!_ ” He tells it to shut up. 

“I can tell you don’t care about me,” Techno says, shocking Tommy back into reality. His voice is quiet, but not at all weak. It’s like he’s looking for the secret of life, and he’s willing to slaughter his way to an answer. “But why? Was it because of what happened on Earth? Is that it?”

_ Uniforms of blue and airplanes storming through the sky, denser than the birds. Countless people in armor surrounding Tommy, guns aimed at his head. Watching from the window as foreign troops march onto his land. Children crying in the streets. Air strikes that leave Tommy gasping for air and struggling to find the sun through all the smoke. Receiving the news that it’s real, it happened, the world has been overthrown and his own family are the culprits. _

“Fuck Earth, I’m talking about _now_ , Techno. Just because you’ve always been honest doesn’t mean you’ve always been right.”

“I think at this point I deserve it. I deserve for one of my plans to go through, to work with a team who has the same goals. I think I’ve earned it.” Techno steps closer as he speaks, and it takes a lot of willpower for Tommy to stand his ground. If you saw them from a distance, it would be like watching two supernovas collide. Waves of destruction in every direction, all at once. “Can you say the same, Tommy?”

“I really hate you, ya know.”

“The feeling’s mutual.”   
  


A month ago when they said this to each other, it ended with a hug and a promise of safety. Now all they want to do is drive a knife though the other’s throat. Tommy’s hand rests on the handle of the Axe of Peace. Techno casually adjusts the sling that holds his crossbow. Neither make any move to attack, though. They both wonder if they’ll be able to, when the time comes. To look their brother in the eye and pull a trigger.

“I never should have come to your house.”

“I never should have let you stay.”

“Glad we’re finally on the same foot.”

“We’ll never be on the same foot ever again, and that’s not because of me.”

The fire eats its way up into Tommy’s throat. If he was braver maybe he’d let it fuel him. If he was anything other than a child soldier maybe he’d actually have that bravery. All he has now is a sick feeling in his gut and a fight that he won’t back out of, no matter how in the wrong he is. 

“You have your perfect little life up in the Arctic with dad, you’ve always had that while me and Wilbur were out here _starving_ , with _nothing_ but the hopes of one day being free.” Techno blinks like Tommy had smacked him. “So why don’t you just run away back North and fuck off for eternity, huh? Leave behind every mess you’ve ever made and _go_.”

“Funny, we had almost achieved that very goal, together. Or did you forget we were a team? Did that slip your mind?”

“Yeah. Slipped my mind the second you threatened Tubbo.” Tommy’s waiting - hoping - that Techno will hit him so he can have an excuse to fight back. “When you threatened my family.”

“Your _family_? What am I, then?”

“A friend, apparently,” Tommy spits out the word like it’s mud. It definitely tastes like it. “Maybe an _ally_ if you’re feeling generous.”

Techno glares for a second more and then turns away, overlooking the city. Tommy does too. The land looks normal, beautiful even. It’s not noticeable to anyone who didn’t know Wilbur towards the end of his life, but Tommy did, and he can see the signs like they’re lit up in neon. The smell of gunpowder in the air, the random piles of redstone dust that glimmer in the early morning sun, the dirt that’s been dug out and then put back into place. 

The country is a ticking fucking time bomb. The country that Tommy built with his bare hands. It wouldn’t exist without him, without his sacrifices. Tommy’s always been the thorn in Dream’s side, the unrelenting mouse that won’t get out of the walls, the draft in the windows that lets out the warmth. He was a shit starter, and he was damn good at his job. 

But now the thorn bush will be burned. And the bakery, and the houses, and the memories. And the pesky mouse will be killed, and his friends, and his family. And the drafty window will be sealed, and so will his fucking coffin. 

“If my home goes, I go down with it.”

Techno scoffs. “You sound like him, you know that?”

“Everyone says it.”   
  


“Wilbur may have made this place for you, but it isn’t your home.” Techno turns to him again, something dead and vicious within his eyes. “This was never your home from the moment you died in that duel. Maybe the people loved you for a moment, but the land was corrupt the second your uniform was bloodied.”   
  


“It’s not the point. It’s home, no matter what the land felt.”

“This is _not_ your home,” Techno repeats. Tommy really doesn’t get what he’s playing at.

“Yeah, Techno, believe it or not this place you’re about to destroy is my home. I fought for it, multiple fucking times, and I grew up here. It's more home than anything I’ve known before.”

“What about our house?”

Tommy resists the urge to roll his eyes. “It's a fucking box in the middle of a tundra, Techno. It means jack shit to me now, so why don’t you just move on already-?”

“You called it home.” Techno whirls on him and there war in his eyes and hundreds of demonic voices within his words. “You called it home, and for once it was good. Remember how we actually got along? How I kept you safe, helped you be free? Free from the lies of friends and the manipulation of a government? You were the one to call it home, Tommy, and for one in your fucking life I thought you actually _meant it_.”

“So did I! Guess we were both wrong about me, huh?”

Techno opens his mouth again and Tommy prepares himself for another twenty miserable minutes of talking in circles and wanting to scream his lungs out. But then Techno presses his eyes shut like he’s hearing a loud noise, and then takes a few steps back. It takes a lot of effort for Tommy to not ask him if he’s okay, to not immediately move over to his side to feel safe. Techno blinks a few times like he’s clearing his mind, and then looks around and begins to descend the hill, not giving Tommy the time of day. 

Techno pauses when he reaches the wooden bridge and looks up at his brother (if he can even call Tommy that). “You know, after it all, after countless betrayals and backstabs, you know what? They’re still telling me to keep you safe, to spare your life.” Techno taps his temple a few times, watching as Tommy goes pale. “And the saddest part is I agree. Because it’s still home, Tommy. _You_ called it home.”

Tommy doesn’t know what to say, so he doesn’t speak. It’s for the best anyway, because the fire in his throat has turned out to just be bile and he’s having trouble keeping it down. After a few minutes he regains his composure. “See you on the other side,” he calls down. “Don’t go easy on us.”

Techno smiles - it’s more like a wolf bearing its teeth than anything else, really - and speaks. “When have I ever? See you at home, one way or another.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! My twitter is @ tamatojam, follow me there for banger tweets and fanart :D


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